


Lost

by LaurentheFlute



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27813253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaurentheFlute/pseuds/LaurentheFlute
Summary: If you pretend to be cool and aloof, they won't notice you're trembling underneath.Just a little character study. Maybe it'll go somewhere eventually!Part of my DrabbleNovember challenge, prompt: “I don’t do hugs.”(note that I have not beaten FF7R yet and have a mishmash of having played Crisis Core recently and veeeery vague old memories from the original, so this may or may not be accurate)
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart & Cloud Strife
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12
Collections: #DrabbleNovember 2020 Collection





	Lost

She stands in front of him with those eyes that are as open and trusting as—well, as some sort of wild creature, but not the sort of wild creature that would bite. Maybe a deer. Are deer trusting? No, he thinks, deer will run away from you if you approach them. And Tifa is the last person he can imagine ever running away from anyone.

Not a deer, then.

But she looks at him with those wide, warm brown eyes that should be familiar. That _are_ familiar, even if he can't fully remember them. It's like seeing a face you recognize across the room but not being able to recall the person's name, or like being called on by the teacher in a classroom and realizing you haven't even heard the question, desperately trying to pretend you know while hoping something around you will drop the clue you need to really understand. His entire life is like that now, with pieces he knows he has seen before but can't quite place. If anyone gets too close, they will realize that he is a patchwork quilt of half-memories ready to come apart at the seams at any moment.

So when she says, "Can I give you a hug?"—he takes a step back, putting physical distance to reinforce the boundary that keeps anyone from looking too hard at what he is. 

"I don't do hugs," he says, as coldly as he can, and he crosses his arms over his chest and looks away from her, and he hopes that she thinks he is turning away because he doesn't care and not because he is afraid that if she looks at him with those eyes, she will see how very lost he is.


End file.
